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EU: SECRET TRILOGUES MEETINGS

04 April 2014

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See: Secret EU lawmaking: the triumph of the trilogue (euobserver, link): Interesting article which explores the secret trilogue process between the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament - which is effectively the European Legislature meeting in secret and which decides over 80% of new laws in the EU. The article says that: "if trilogue meetings and their minutes were opened up to the public, lawmakers would just find another way of negotiating in secret".

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments:

"The argument that if law-making in the EU meant all the documents, a transcript of the discussions and the minutes were public then the power elite in Brussels would find a way to by-pass the system is the traditional argument used to perpetuate secret decision-making. It has no place in a democracy worthy of the name."

See: Secret trilogues and the democratic deficit (pdf) and European Parliament: Abolish 1st [and 2nd] reading secret deals - bring back democracy “warts and all” (pdf)

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